Waltham Forest Olympic ambassador reported for riots by own mum

Chelsea Ives, 18, an Olympic youth ambassador for Waltham Forest, appeared in court yesterday after her own mother handed her in to police.

“Any parent who loves their child should find the courage to do what we did,” said her mother, Adrienne Michael-Ives, to Sky News. She reported her daughter after recognising her from BBC footage of the looting in Enfield. “If [parents] love their children yes, you have to. It’s their job as parents to do that. It’s a hard decision to make but it ‘s a decision any good parent would do.”

Chelsea, of Birch Grove, Walthamstow, was charged with two counts of burglary, violent disorder and attacking a police car. She was accused of leading an attack on a Vodafone store, suspected of being involved in breaking into a Phones4U shop and of hurling bricks at a £60,000 police BMW. She was refused bail and remanded in custody by Westminster magistrates until next Wednesday, August 17th, where her case will be heard by Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court. A guilty plea is due to be entered.

Chelsea appears to have been something of an enfant terrible. Her last Facebook status was of her swearing at her father, whilst another relative, on hearing of her court appearance, said “I hope its [sic] a wake up call for her.”

The girl also appears to have shown an intention to be involved with the riots from the moment she heard about them. Again on Facebook, she posted the question “eyyy what’s happening in tottenham. I’m hearing ders a mad riot??” and almost immediately commented “I wanna get involvd” after being told that “bare fed [police] cars are getting torched”.

Despite these things she does appear to have had a promising future ahead of her in sports, with her solicitor describing her as a “talented sportswoman” in court. In her role as Olympic ambassador Chelsea met London mayor Boris Johnson and Lord Seb Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. The young all-round athlete runs 400m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay as well as throwing the shot putt and hammer. She also runs the 200m, 1500m and competes in the long jump.

Waltham Forest Council leader Chris Robbins said: “Although it was a couple of years ago now, Chelsea Ives did represent her school as an Olympic youth ambassador, and by all accounts was a very talented athlete. It’s sad to see her splashed across newspapers.”

she did the right thing because violence dosent fix any of our cultural ills, it only deepens the divide, the young lady erred badly on her part she has such a bright futures, why riot?
she deserve her due justice,but she always deserve a chance to make it up to her community, make her ass rebuild, paint, throw away garbage,repair what she tore down then lock her young little pretty self in a jail cell, she needs to learn the real lesson make her work, save yourselves some money, those victims should have to rebuild what she tore down, reconcilationhttp://ethicalfutures.wordpress.com

I’m aghast. I know the parents, Adrienne and Roger, very well. They are good, honest, hard working parents. I worked with Adrienne for some years and she is a very decent person. They supported me some time ago when I did a charity swim and Adrienne has run a couple of London marathons to support charities. They need our wholehearted support in, what is for them, a very difficult time.